happened and of his disgust with the French. 'I am going on to Acre, and from there I will mount an expedition to take Jerusalem back from the infidel. Are you with me, my lords?' He raised his sword. 'To the glory of God and of England!' he cried.
'For God and for England!' the English replied with one voice.
Prince Edward came to the tent of Edward de Beaulieu, smiling at Rhonwyn as he entered. 'I am told, lady, that your lord improved each day, thanks to your tender care. Would that my aunt had heeded your simple advice, my uncle, King Louis, would be alive today.' He waved his hand at Edward, who was struggling to arise. 'Nay, my lord, lie back. I can see you are yet in a weakened condition.' He sat on the single chair in the tent that Rhonwyn had fetched for him, and explained the situation. 'If you feel you cannot continue on, my lord, you are free to return home with our blessing and our thanks.'
'I will go on with you, my lord,' Edward said. 'Why did we come this far, if not to free Jerusalem? When do you leave?'
'It will take ten days or more to remount the expedition,' the prince said. 'Do you think you can travel by then?'
'Aye, my lord, I will be ready!' Edward said enthusiastically.
Rhonwyn bit her lip in vexation, but remained silent.
The prince arose. 'I thank you, my lord, for your loyalty. I do not, as you well know, forget my friends, even as I remember my enemies.' He turned to Rhonwyn. 'My wife will be happy to receive you when you are able to leave your lord, lady,' he told her, and then Prince Edward turned and departed the tent.
'You are not well enough to continue on,' Rhonwyn said.
'I will be,' he vowed.
'In ten days'time?' she scoffed.
'I have to be,' he insisted. 'Besides, the prince is overly optimistic. It will take at least a fortnight before he is ready to depart, and he will not be traveling at a great pace, as he has his wife and her ladies with him. You must go and see the lady Eleanor. Enit will look after me while you are gone, lambkin.'
'If I do not believe you well enough to travel, my lord, I shall say so, and let none stop me,' Rhonwyn told her husband.
He chuckled. 'Such a fierce little Welsh wife, she is,' he teased her. 'I promise to behave, lady, if you will make me well in time to go. How can we not follow in the prince's wake? Now go and pay your respects to bis wife, Rhonwyn.' He waved her off.
'I will see to him, lady,' Enit promised.
Rhonwyn quickly bathed her face and hands. She smoothed her hair beneath its sheer veil, brushed an imaginary wrinkle from her gown, and hurried from their quarters to the royal English tent across the encampment. Having given her name and business to the guard, she was shortly admitted. She curtsied to Princess Eleanor.
'How nice to see you, Rhonwyn de Beaulieu,' the prince's wife said. 'Come, sit by my side and tell me of your good lord, whom I am told is ill. He recovers?'
'Aye, lady,' Rhonwyn replied, and then she told the princess of their adventures to date. 'I fear,' she concluded, 'that my lord will not be well enough to travel, but he insists otherwise.'
'Men!' the lady Eleanor sympathized. 'They all think they are indestructible.' Then she laughed. 'Go back to your good lord and make him well so he may have his wish. Then you will come and serve me as we make our way to the kingdom and city of Acre.' She smiled warmly at Rhonwyn. 'What stories we shall have to tell our grandchildren, lady.'
'First I must have a child,' Rhonwyn replied.
'You are not yet a mother?' The lady Eleanor's voice was filled with compassion. 'We must make a special devotion to Our Lady's mother, Saint Anne. I have told you that she will not fail you. When you come to serve me we shall pray together.'
Rhonwyn returned to her tent. She was suddenly filled with energy. 'Find Sir Fulk,' she told Enit. 'I need to practice my sword-play.' She turned to her husband. 'Nursing you is hard work, my lord, but I feel the sudden need of exercise. Will you let me go for a little more time?'
He nodded, feeling generous, although her request was not pleasing to him. Still, he knew he couldn't expect her to change entirely overnight. A little bit of horseplay with Fulk could do no harm, and her new attitude was welcome to him. He then asked her, 'What did the lady Eleanor say?'
'That men thought they were indestructible,' she replied with a chuckle. 'She bade me make you well enough to travel, and so I have no other choice, but first I will work off some of this surfeit of energy that I suddenly seem to have.' She turned her back to him so he might fasten her padded vest.
'Wear your mail shirt,' he instructed.
' 'Tis too hot,' she complained.
'Nonetheless wear it, lady. Even in practice you fight fiercely and rouse the blood of your opponent. I do not want you harmed, lambkin.' Nor did he want her ability to bear him children impaired by injury.
Her arming doublet secure, Rhonwyn pulled on her chausses over her legs, then her hauberk with its articulated shoulder plates and her mail coif. 'I will be boiled alive in these things,' she grumbled.
' 'Tis the price we warriors pay,' he teased her. 'Practice out of the direct sun and not for too long. If you get sick, who will I have to so tenderly nurse me, my lambkin?'
'Fool,' she mocked him. 'You are only jealous that I get to play with my sword, and you cannot.'
'I should prefer it if you played with
Rhonwyn blushed to the roots of her pale hair.
He grinned mischievously. 'Come and give us a kiss, lambkin.'
'You don't deserve one, saying such naughty things. I shall leave you to think on your sins, my lord, and perhaps when I return, I shall give you a kiss if you are truly penitent and deserve it.' Then she picked up her weapon and ran from their tent.
He watched her go, a smile upon his handsome face. He would certainly not have believed that going on crusade with his wife would have brought them closer, but it had. Perhaps this was God's blessing upon them both for their faithfulness. For the first time in the months they had been wed, he was beginning to have hope.
Chapter 8
Rhonwyn practiced her swordplay with Sir Fulk beneath an open awning on the shady side of the camp. Those who passed by and saw her assumed that the two knights were both men, for Rhonwyn's long hair was hidden beneath her mail coif. The high summer's heat made it difficult to drill for long periods of time without cessations for rest and water in between the exercises. It was during one of those short respites that the alarm rang out in the camp.
'Quick, lady, I must take you back to your tent,' Sir Fulk said nervously.
'Nay,' Rhonwyn responded, 'this is our chance to meet the infidel in battle, Fulk! With the French negotiating a truce, when will we have another chance?'
'But when we reach Acre, we will battle for Jerusalem, lady. There will be time then,' Fulk responded hopefully.
'Faugh! We cannot be certain of that,' Rhonwyn said. 'Neither of us has bloodied our swords yet, and you know had not my lord been ill, we would have by now! Come on! To horse, Fulk! To horse!' Then she ran off toward the pen where the animals were tethered.
For a moment Fulk hesitated. He knew that he ought to go to the tent and tell Edward de Beaulieu, but if he did, the skirmish would likely be over and done with before he even had time to find his own mount. The infidels harassed the crusaders several times daily, but they never remained long enough to engage them in serious battle. His decision made, Sir Fulk ran after Rhonwyn. It was not fair that she have all the fun.
At the horse pens, his squire had already saddled both her horse and his. Mounted, they charged through the
